The thoughts and ruminations of a university chemistry and roleplaying geek

Alright, I’ve not felt much like blogging as of late, but I did manage another session of Rune-X. I tried to work in a bit more narration this time. I think it may have been a mistake trying to do a semi-parody of dungeoncrawling while running my first real dungeon crawl. We shall see- I have another session shedualed for Sunday afternoon with more players.

### Log session started at Fri Jun 17 17:59:28 2011 ###
[17:59:28] Channel topic is: Fight for fame and money in the reality TV show RUNE-X!
[18:12:29] Canageek|2 [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as TheDM
[18:14:27] <@TheDM> So, to recap you had arrived and gone straight to the dungeon complex, a fortress or abode, since abandoned by its rulers, presumably slain when the great war sweat through the pre-industrializatoin valley
[18:15:04] <@TheDM> You proceeded into the first hallway and found a slain group of people outside the inner door
[18:15:43] <@TheDM> Your score for the dungeon will be determined by how much treasure you take with you when you leave, how much of it you explore, and what challanges you overcome while inside
[18:16:11] <@TheDM> The audiance at home is watching by scrying, and you all have recived a small earpeice piping the narrators commentary into your ears
[18:16:14] fudgebob [~fudgebob@27B34E.4FEA8A.0EDFA7.B2D00D] is now known as Eel
[18:16:22] <Eowyn> Not when we leave for the night I hope?
[18:16:26] <@TheDM> So far it has been theme music- there has not been much to say
[18:16:48] <~Canageek-OOC> Hmm? What was that in respons to?
[18:17:04] <Eowyn> The score for the dungeon
[18:17:35] <~Canageek-OOC> No, though total time taken may be a factor
[18:18:06] <~Canageek-OOC> Any questions?
[18:18:15] <Eel> *examines door
[18:18:38] Eowyn [~AndChat@OWIRCN-df1377d8.sub-174-252-115.myvzw.com] is now known as Ada
[18:18:42] <~Canageek-OOC> Ada/Eowyn: do you have the map?
[18:18:57] <Ada> I’m just trying to reconcile that with the plan to leave the dungeon at the end of each play session
[18:19:17] <Ada> I know where it is.
[18:20:02] <~Canageek-OOC> The formula isn’t public, but speculation has been that it takes into account amount of time healing from wounds vs adventuring time, and number of times you had to leave to heal
[18:20:16] <~Canageek-OOC> The end of session is the direction yelling ‘cut’ basically
[18:20:30] Ada [~AndChat@OWIRCN-df1377d8.sub-174-252-115.myvzw.com] is now known as Eowyn
[18:20:52] <~Canageek-OOC> However people had to go suddenly last time, and you’ve not been to town yet- was hoping to get to town before the end of this session
[18:20:53] <Eowyn> Well, I should be able to keep healing time to a

[18:23:22] <@TheDM> Correction, there is no door- just a set of stairs leading up to a 4 way intersection
[18:23:47] <@TheDM> You’d partailly looted the bodies as I recall, shall I go over that again?
[18:24:04] <Eowyn> (Do the stairs take up one square or what?)
[18:24:17] <Eowyn> We’d want to finish looting them.
[18:24:19] <~Canageek-OOC> Less then 1 square
[18:25:16] <@TheDM> I’ll recap all the treasure to make sure we don’t miss anything
[18:25:18] <@TheDM> Body #1—A human fighter, slumped against a wall. His broken sword, sheared off about eight inches above the pommel, tells the story of his demise. The body has been stripped of any armor, and there are no items of value on the remains, other than a belt pouch containing 5 gold pieces (g.p.).
[18:25:30] Canageek-OOC [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as Narrator
[18:25:42] <~Narrator> A voice murmers in your earpeice
[18:26:13] <Eowyn> (Silver pieces as I recall)
[18:26:15] <~Narrator> “Tragic, you all remeber what happened this this brave band in episode 4, don’t you? That WAS quite a struggle they put up, too bad it all came to naught.”
[18:26:23] <~Narrator> “Lets hope that this group does better!”
[18:26:28] <@TheDM> OOC: Yes
[18:26:38] <@TheDM> (Silver, not gold)
[18:26:44] Eel throws away the useless sword “Pity, I could have used that”
[18:27:20] <@TheDM> Body #2—A human magic-user, impaled against a wall: The killing sword, still thrust through the body, is lodged in the wall, which has a large section of wood at this point. When the sword was removed, the body will crumple to the floor, exposing a blood-stained carving. The carved letters form the word “QUASQUETON” in the “common” language.
[18:27:54] <Eowyn> … which I made a note of
[18:27:57] <~Narrator> “Quite clever of Eel to remove the sword right away, I wonder if they will determin the meaning of that word….IN TIME!”
[18:28:02] <Eel> … peers up the stairs “Eowyn, shall we… go on with the show?” *winking
[18:28:22] <@TheDM> The sword, upon being removed, proved worthless, since its handle is very loose and the overall quality of the weapon is poor.
[18:28:46] <Eowyn> “As soon as we finish looking these remains over.”
[18:28:51] <@TheDM> The body was bereft of any items of great value. The magic-user’s robe, now bloodstained and ruined, has a pocket and within it is a purse containing 2 s.p. and a pouch full of garlic buds
[18:29:12] <Eowyn> (I had stowed those with my spices)
[18:29:15] <Eel> (( I hates it when TheDM gives oh so vague clues
[18:29:32] <@TheDM> OOC: As I recall that was were we got to last time
[18:30:23] <Eowyn> (( Sounds about right ))
[18:30:55] <@TheDM> The next body you find is a human berserker/fighter by his dress, obviously a guard who defended to the death. The body is sprawled on the floor, and a broken wooden shield lies nearby. The body has no armor on it. There is no weapon on the body or nearby, nor are there any other items of value on the remains.
[18:31:47] <~Narrator> “Such a pity that so much of the last groups gear was taken by the victors– I wonder if our intrepid adventures will get far enough to see it used against them?”
[18:31:54] Eowyn checks her own armor and gear to s[18:29:32] <@TheDM> OOC: As I recall that was w[18:32:42] <@TheDM> It is, the guards appear to be local hires, using very a mix of cheap locally made junk and castoffs of the armies that marched through here
[18:33:26] <@TheDM> The final body lying at the foot of the steps is another human berserker/fighter guard. This body, with a bashed head from the blow of a war hammer, lies on the floor face down. There is no armor or weapon on the body except for a small sheathed dagger on the belt. The belt is very ornately decorated leather, which would appear to be worth something, except for the bloodstains ruining its appearance.
[18:33:29] <Eel> “Hmmmm. Poor pickings for us”
[18:34:09] <@TheDM> You can see another body lying just east of the intersectoin
[18:34:13] <Eel> “Want that, Eowyn?” *offering the dagger & belt
[18:34:27] <Eowyn> “Sure.”
[18:34:34] <@TheDM> OOC: Ada: Fill in the ‘door’ you drew on the map to make stairs and it should be prefect
[18:34:34] Eowyn examines the dagger.
[18:34:56] <@TheDM> OOC: Do you want to map in past the intersection or head back to town? I know it is late where Ada is
[18:35:15] <Eowyn> OOC And the intersection is immediately after the stairs?
[18:35:31] <@TheDM> Yes, just 4 steps leading up to it
[18:35:38] <Eowyn> (( Only 9:35))
[18:35:49] <@TheDM> *2 steps
[18:37:15] <~Narrator> ((Alright-The passage goes 80 feet forward befor hitting a wall- you can’t see which way it turns at that distance with the poor light
[18:37:24] <@TheDM> Errr
[18:37:30] <@TheDM> The passage goes 80 feet forward befor hitting a wall- you can’t see which way it turns at that distance with the poor light
[18:37:52] <Eowyn> And to the right and left?
[18:37:55] <@TheDM> It goes east & west at least 10 feet in either direction, but you can’t see more without going up the stairs
[18:38:21] <@TheDM> There are 2 doors on either side of the north passage immediatly after the intersection
[18:38:44] Eowyn scribbles.
[18:38:51] <Eowyn> Got it.
[18:38:56] <@TheDM> A passage to the east immediatly north of that, and one to the west right after that
[18:39:10] <@TheDM> SO, with the intersection at 0:
[18:39:22] <Eel> “We go up, you cover our left, I cover our right… so there won’t be any surprises. That ok, Eowyn?”
[18:39:34] <@TheDM> Doors EW +1 square, +2 W passage, +3 E passage
[18:39:35] <Eowyn> “Sure.”
[18:39:47] <@TheDM> You head up the stairs?
[18:39:47] <Eel> *nods
[18:39:56] <Eel> yes, as planned
[18:40:04] <Eel> wait!
[18:40:08] <@TheDM> You carefully step around the bodies, trodding on the dried ….
[18:40:08] <Eowyn> That is reversed to where you said the passages were
[18:40:12] <@TheDM> Oh
[18:40:33] <@TheDM> West is the southmost
[18:40:39] TheDM got E & west confused
[18:41:13] <Eowyn> ((Too bad I don’t have white-out))
[18:41:30] <@TheDM> OOC: Might I recommend pencil? *sheepish look*
[18:41:44] TheDM might not tell you some passages and such until you are closer and such

[18:42:34] <@TheDM> ((Everything you drew last week was described correctly))

[18:44:24] <Eowyn> Uploaded the newer map, with scribbled out corrections
[18:46:35] <Eowyn> I may do a fair copy later, and put a pencil in my gaming binder
[18:46:56] <@TheDM> OOC: I could recomend arrows showing the real passages, sorry about that
[18:47:13] <@TheDM> OOC: Also there is a body just E of the intersection you can see
[18:47:18] <Eowyn> Added
[18:47:40] <@TheDM> Are you proceeding into the intersection?
[18:47:44] <Eowyn> The body is to the direction Eel said he’d cover
[18:47:48] <@TheDM> Ok
[18:48:05] <Eowyn> I believe so
[18:48:21] <Eel> “move!” *whisper
[18:48:32] Eowyn moves
[18:48:48] <@TheDM> You carefully step around the bodies, trodding on the dried blood of those whom have already died for the amusiment of the masses, silently hoping for a better death for yourselfs. Emerging warely into the intersection only the sound of your footseps on the stop floor greet you, echoing hollowly down the hallways.
[18:48:48] <Eel> my area clear, Narrator?
[18:49:34] <Eel> “I wish I bought a flash-bang… it would have been more dramatic” *laughs
[18:49:36] <@TheDM> To the east lies the dead body of a dwarven warrior, a trail of blood leading back to the battle site at the bottom of the stairs
[18:50:23] Eowyn checks to the west
[18:50:48] <@TheDM> Each passage, east & west extends 30′ from the intersection before making a right angled-turn to the south
[18:51:04] Eel kicks the dead dwarf, checking if he is alive or booby-trapped
[18:52:03] <@TheDM> The dead dwaf shifts out of the posture he was in with the sickening sound of dead meat
[18:53:14] <Eel> seeing the east passage is clear, Eel squats down to start the body search
[18:53:16] <@TheDM> No traps go off, and the dead dwarf appears to be well & truely dead
[18:53:31] <Eel> “East wing clear”
[18:53:57] <~Narrator> “Isn’t that horrible folks? You think that these adventures would have more respect when their bodies could soon join the deceased on the cold stone floor!”
[18:54:14] <Eowyn> “Nothing apparent to the west.”
[18:54:31] <@TheDM> In his right hand he still clutches his war hammer, and it appears that he crawled, wounded,to this point, since a trail of dried blood leads back to the battle location. A sack turned inside out lies alongside the body, now empty.
[18:54:48] <@TheDM> Armor has. been stipped from the body, although the fighter’s helm is still on his head. This headgear, however, has a noticeable dent in it which will make it unusable and thus worthless.
[18:55:43] <@TheDM> !roll d100
[18:55:43] <@ChanServ> 47 == 47
[18:55:49] Eel examines hammer
[18:55:58] <Eowyn> ((Is that a one-handed or two-handed hammer?)?
[18:56:28] <@TheDM> Eel: As you kneel to search the body you find a small smear of blood leading to a chink in the wall
[18:56:52] <@TheDM> !roll 1d2
[18:56:52] <@ChanServ> 2 == 2
[18:56:56] <@TheDM> 2 handed
[18:57:36] <Eel> *examines chink
[18:57:44] <Eel> … carefully, eyeballing not touching
[18:58:15] <@TheDM> Inside you see a flash of gold, looks circular
[18:58:15] recursive_faults [~hitokiri@OWIRCN-3e3de74c.res.rr.com] has joined #Rune-X
[19:02:36] <Eel> (( hello, recursive_faults, glad to see you here :)
[19:02:57] <@TheDM> Eel: What are you doing about the gold?
[19:02:59] <Eowyn> “What’s that, Eel?” *whispering*
[19:06:22] <Eel> “I don’t know… but it is… shiny!”
[19:06:31] Narrator pipes music over your earpeices
[19:06:37] <Eel> “Should I? Get it, I mean?”
[19:06:45] <~Narrator> ((http://radio.otherworlders.org/listen.pls ))
[19:07:03] <Eowyn> Can you fish it out without putting your fingers in?
[19:08:36] Eel takes out his knife and tries to pry-out the shiny thing
[19:09:52] <@TheDM> It takes some work, but you eventually fish out a large golden ring, coated in blood
[19:10:00] <@TheDM> The ring is not thick, but it is solidly made
[19:10:23] <@TheDM> You can make Culture(Dwarven) checks at default
[19:10:45] <@TheDM> Or any skill related to jewlery or similar you can think of
[19:10:51] <Eowyn> !roll d100
[19:10:51] <@ChanServ> 87 == 87
[19:10:56] <Eowyn> Nothing
[19:12:15] <Eel> “Can we detect if it is ‘magical’?” *tries not to guffaw
[19:12:40] <@TheDM> OOC: Magic is very well known in this setting, FYI
[19:14:03] <@TheDM> OOC: But I don’t think either of you have the ‘Detect Magic’ spell
[19:14:34] <Eel> OOC: that’s why he was laughing… no detect magic ;)
[19:14:51] <~Narrator> OOC: Ahhh, I thought you’d gotten the impression it was a low magic setting
[19:15:13] <Eowyn> OOC Yep, but if the ring breaks its leg I can heal it!
[19:16:17] TheDM waits to hear what you do next
[19:16:34] <Eel> “Can you read the inscription, Eowyn?”
[19:16:41] <Eel> *hands it back to Eowyn
[19:17:08] Ina [~G.Vegt@OWIRCN-661d2d7c.solcon.nl] has joined #Rune-X
[19:17:13] <@TheDM> Eel…How did you know it had an inscription?
[19:17:29] <@TheDM> It does, on the inside the band in bold, deeply cut runes
[19:17:35] Eowyn cleans the blood off the ring.
[19:17:55] <Eowyn> “I don’t know Dwarven.”
[19:18:33] <@TheDM> You are not sure it is in Dwarven, though that would be logical. Either way you can’t read it
[19:18:51] <Eel> “Ok. I’ll try it on then… I am a human Detect Magic device” *winks
[19:19:24] <@TheDM> The ring is much too large for your finger, and does not resize. Nothing happens expcpt some of the dried blood rubs off on your finger
[19:19:33] <Eel> “… just watch my back, Eowyn, and heal me if I get cut in half!?!”
[19:19:38] <Eel> “… or worse!”
[19:19:45] <Eowyn> “Will do.”
[19:19:55] <Eel> “Drats!”
[19:20:21] <Eowyn> “Maybe it’s a keepsake, I wonder if he has family that would want the ring.”
[19:21:19] Eel looks at Eowyn’s fingers, shakes head “Nah, too risky. Medics are much too precious”
[19:21:43] <Eel> *shrugs “Where to now, stalwart buddy?”
[19:22:12] <Eowyn> “West?”
[19:23:51] <Eel> “West it is… lead on”
[19:24:04] <Eel> “No, wait… I’ll take point”
[19:24:12] Eowyn proceeds carefully behind Eel.
[19:24:26] <~Narrator> You reach the end of the passage with no incident
[19:24:36] Eel trods forward carefully, shotgun ready
[19:25:21] <~Narrator> It extends 130′ south of your position, with a passage east 70′ south
[19:26:25] <Eowyn> East? That would go back towards the passage with the alcoves.
[19:26:40] <@TheDM> OOC: Yes, East
[19:27:24] Narrator [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as Canageek-DM
[19:27:29] <Eowyn> (( Oh right, we did go up slightly)
[19:27:56] <@TheDM> Slightly- only a foot or so. 2 steps.
[19:28:06] <Eel> “Be carful with the mapping, Eowyn… I get lost easilly”
[19:28:41] <Eowyn> “Will do.”
[19:28:56] <@TheDM> So, are you heading south?
[19:29:18] Eel raises an eyebrow at Eowyn
[19:29:20] <Eowyn> “I’d like to go south, then east.”
[19:29:38] <Eel> “Going”
[19:29:48] <@TheDM> One second
[19:30:01] <Eowyn> Hmm… maybe that passage hooks up with the strange walls in the alcove
[19:30:15] TheDM is cross-refrencing
[19:31:33] <@TheDM> The passage to the east extends 10′ then ends in a stone door
[19:33:04] TheDM waits
[19:33:27] <Eowyn> “If you don’t open it I will.”
[19:35:31] <Eel> *opens with a hard yank!
[19:36:23] <@TheDM> The door grinds open to reveale the alcoves you saw earlier
[19:36:38] <@TheDM> There is no handle from the other side of the door, and indeed no way to tell there is a door there at all
[19:37:01] <Eel> “Was this some sort of murder-hole?”
[19:37:10] <Eowyn> Except that it looked strange to me from the other side.
[19:37:31] <~Canageek-DM> Yes, though you couldn’t put your finger on it
[19:37:38] <~Canageek-DM> (1 point off from what you needed as I recall)
[19:39:39] <Eowyn> ((I should get to sleep soon))
[19:39:54] <@TheDM> OOC: Alright, then lets call cut and let you head back to town
[19:40:01] Canageek-DM [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as TheNarrator
[19:40:33] <Eel> (( ok
[19:40:50] TheNarrator ‘s voice murmers in your ear: Why don’t the two of you head back to town? I’m going to have some more delver’s join you there in a day or so and would make things easier if had an inn room or somthing to meet up in
[19:41:16] <Eel> *comms* “Okey”
[19:42:01] <@TheDM> You make your way back, easy from this spot as you can just go through the secret door. However that will leave it open, as there is no way to close it from the other side. Do you take the shortcut or go the long way?

[19:42:54] <Eowyn> I don’t care
[19:43:03] <@TheDM> Eel: ?
[19:44:59] <Eowyn> OK, we’ll close the door to leave less sign that we’ve been here and exit the long way.
[19:45:30] <@TheDM> Alright, you treck back to town. You find it is a very small town, mostly comprised of old feildstone houses
[19:46:08] Eel follows Eowyn lead
[19:46:52] <@TheDM> For the most part it looks like it was pulled from the last century, but then and again there is an anacronism- a feild laborur wearing an undershirt and combate fatigue pants, a truck tire used as a flower planter
[19:47:06] <Eel> “Should we look for the Shop or the Tavern, Eowyn?” *grins
[19:47:19] <@TheDM> The town seems poor, but stable- you don’t see anyone fat, but no one seems to be starving to death
[19:47:44] <Eowyn> “Tavern first. Want to share a room? Cheaper and we can watch each other’s backs.”
[19:47:57] <@TheDM> You get a number of curious looks as you walk through town, and a group of children shadow you down the street, pointing and whispering
[19:48:02] <Eel> “Agreed”
[19:49:03] <~TheNarrator> You quickly fine a small hostel, more of a bed and breakfast due to the low amount of traffic the town recives. It is howerver just down the street from the bar
[19:49:52] <@TheDM> The women who runs it loosk suprised to see you, but quickly names a price of 1 s.p/week/person
[19:50:25] <Eowyn> Does she seem inclined to haggle?
[19:50:53] <~TheNarrator> You notice the stoicism or perhappes reticism the region is known for when she doesn’t ask any questions about your strange dress or reason for visiting
[19:51:14] <~TheNarrator> Eowyn: Is is hard to say, roll a social skill of some sort
[19:51:25] Eel flashes a smile at the lady
[19:51:36] <Eowyn> !roll d100
[19:51:36] <@ChanServ> 30 == 30
[19:51:59] <Eel> … sometimes impresses, sometimes depresses ;)
[19:52:15] <Eowyn> Perception would make it, trade wouldn’t

[19:53:21] <@TheDM> You think you would have a better chance at haggaling if you were not heavily armed and appeared in town suddenly, loooking like trouble, but don’t think it is impossible

[19:53:56] Eowyn tries to signal to Eel to bargain
[19:54:33] <Eowyn> (If the DM were still here)
[19:54:50] <Eel> ((lol
[19:54:59] TheDM is
[19:55:11] <Eel> !roll d100 convince Madam
[19:55:11] <@ChanServ> 40 == 40
[19:55:27] <@TheDM> Eel: Is that a pass with a -10 penatly on your skill?
[19:55:47] <Eel> (( I don’t know. where is the link again for my charsheet, TheDM?

[19:56:26] <@TheDM> You started with 28, so you fail
[19:56:4[19:56:44] TheInnKeeper [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] has joined #Rune-X
[19:57:02] <~TheInnKeeper> No- you look like trouble enough, I need the money to cover any damage you hooligins cause!
[19:57:36] <~TheInnKeeper> That reminds me, I’ll need a 5 silver damage deposit from the yer husband and yer, split however yer want
[19:57:52] <Eel> “What?!?!”
[19:58:12] <Eowyn> “Here’s a silver. I’m only paying for the nights I sleep here, mind you, but I’ll be in and out often enough to make at least a week.
[19:58:23] <~TheInnKeeper> You’ll get it back when you leave, minus whatever you break
[19:58:25] Eowyn digs out the 5 silver from the treasure.
[19:58:26] <Eel> (( do we have enough money?
[19:58:28] <~TheInnKeeper> No explosives in the house
[19:58:49] <@TheDM> OOC: Should, you found 5 silver in the dungeon
[19:59:04] <@TheDM> OCC: You suspect you could get her down to 3 silver or so bargening
[19:59:19] <@TheDM> But if you fail when she is already suspecious it could have consequences
[19:59:37] <Eowyn> “Here, but I need a receipt.”
[20:00:12] <Eel> “Ack. Lets just pay-up and sleep… This lady is too much hassle”
[20:01:45] <@TheDM> Alright, you pay up and have a room
[20:01:50] <@TheDM> she takes your money and gives you a recite in large, crude writing.
[20:03:07] <Eowyn> In between sessions I’ll see if anyone sells detect magic casting
[20:03:27] <Eowyn> But I won’t be surprised if the town is too small
[20:03:58] <Eel> (( hehe
[20:04:00] <Eowyn> And I’ll sell or trade healing to anyone who needs it, until the other delvers show up
[20:04:17] <@TheDM> There is a general store that sells dry goods, milk and fresh meat from the surrounding farms, and a few cheap firearms, but people are not exactly spilling information at you just yet
[20:04:21] <Eel> (( good game. looking forward to the next episode
[20:04:32] <@TheDM> Alright, that should make you popular, we can discuss it next episode
[20:04:38] <Eowyn> Okay
[20:04:54] <Eel> good idea, Eowyn
[20:05:00] <Eowyn> I’ll set my rates to what they can afford
[20:05:33] <Eowyn> Sort of a healer’s instinct… get to town, patch people up
[20:05:56] <Eel> OOC: I think Eowyn is a Lost, Amazing Race, Survivor expert ;)
[20:05:57] <@TheDM> Alright, sorry if I’m loosing focus here- 8 pm and I’ve not eaten since lunch. I wanted to get this wrapped up before Ada went to bed
[20:06:00] <Eowyn> Thanks for the game, guys
[20:06:11] <Eel> thank you, TheDM and Eowyn :)
[20:06:23] <Eel> no combats yet!
[20:06:37] <Eowyn> Or traps
[20:06:44] <@TheDM> Nope, though I had outlined one in my notes that I forgot about as an opening
[20:06:45] <Eowyn> Go eat!
[20:06:48] <@TheDM> Fixed it
[20:06:52] <Eel> we have beginners luck
[20:06:54] <@TheDM> Alright, get some sleep dear freind
[20:07:05] <Eowyn> Thanks, my friend
[20:07:06] <@TheDM> Yep, however it is an easy enoucnter to move :D
[20:07:08] Sent part request, waiting for reply…
### Log session terminated at Fri Jun 17 20:07:08 2011 ###

Alright, for some reason despite being pumped about gaming I’ve not had much energy to blog. To keep some content going up I’m posting this chatlog from the first session of Rune-X: My online IRC game. We’ve not really gotten into the reality TV aspects of the setting yet, I’m hoping to start bringing that in next session.

Edit: I’ve cleaned up the log a fair bit, remove a lot of join/leave messages, chatter and whatnot as well as some logging bugs from the fact I was connected to the channel multiple times (They why my nick changes so much). Hopefully this will make it a bit easier to read.

### Log session started at Sat Jun 4 09:54:15 2011 ###
[…]
[16:53:26] <Eowyn> What should my 1 handed close combat weapon be? Not sure what a modern soldier would carry, I think we’ve moved beyond bayonets
[16:54:24] <~Canageek-DM> Yes, but at the same time the game has heavy fantasy elements, and WWI bits and peices are still around as the military wouldn’t acknowledge them as anacronisms
[17:03:09] <Eowyn> So I’ll make it a bayonet
[17:04:04] <~Canageek-DM> If you want, sure
[17:04:18] <~Canageek-DM> I imagined you guys using a lot of medevial weapons due to the televised nature
[17:04:38] <~Canageek-DM> That and very few magic guns exist- They are too knew and expensive
[17:12:46] <Eowyn> Okay, a shortsword
[17:12:56] <~Canageek-DM> Your choice
[17:13:22] <Eowyn> I was just figuring I’d use what I’d trained on in the army
[17:13:35] <~Canageek-DM> If you want, sure
[17:13:50] <~Canageek-DM> But if you were an officer at the start of the war you would have been trained in a saber or shortsword
[17:13:57] <Eowyn> You be the producer. Do you try to talk me into using something medieval?
[17:14:35] <~Canageek-DM> Hmmmm, yes, I think I do
[17:14:49] <~Canageek-DM> Do you want me to roleplay it?
[17:15:17] <Eowyn> Whichever you’d rather. I’m just a passenger in the van for the next hour
[17:15:27] <~Canageek-DM> *nodnod*
[17:15:31] <~Canageek-DM> Let me think for a bit
[17:16:52] <~Canageek-DM> Take what you think is best for the character actually, it is the first season so everything is still in flux
[17:19:20] <Eowyn> Well, I basically want to play myself as I’m not a good actor, so I plan on being the combat medic of the team.
[17:19:37] <~Canageek-DM> Right, so when you find magic weapons you’ll have to learn then
[17:20:01] <Eowyn> I’ll use the close combat weapon to defend myself when I’m not patching up my buddies.
[17:20:23] <~Canageek-DM> Yeah, it might not matter- I remeber by 12th level cleric using a non-magic scimitar
[17:20:24] <Eowyn> So to start with I’ll just keep my bayonet on my rifle since I’m familiar with it
[17:20:59] <~Canageek-DM> Works for me
[17:21:06] <Eowyn> And as I get better at battle magic I want to learn how to make healing potions and magic power stores. I just want to optimize my healing powers.
[17:21:16] <~Canageek-DM> Ok, can do
[17:22:18] <Eowyn> Do you have any of those magic power stores I could borrow for the first few episodes? Or potions for the team?
[17:22:45] <~Canageek-DM> No to start with, I want to see how you do with the rules as written
[17:22:56] <Eowyn> Very well.
[17:23:41] <~Canageek-DM> If you have a lot of trouble I’ll add it as treasure or for sale in the nearby town
[17:25:25] <Eowyn> Good. Doing this as a reality show is rather comforting, as I know having our whole team die would end the show.
[17:25:32] <Eowyn> Unless….
[17:25:37] <~Canageek-DM> No, they you play the next team ^^
[17:25:59] <~Canageek-DM> The motto of X-Crawl was “If you die…YOU DIE!”
[17:26:02] <Eowyn> What are your plans if you have to cancel the show?
[17:26:15] <~Canageek-DM> What do you mean? If the team dies?
[17:26:32] <Eowyn> No if the ratings are abysmal
[17:26:45] <~Canageek-DM> :D I am the DM, so I get to pick the ratings
[17:26:58] <Eowyn> I was still roleplaying
[17:27:01] <~Canageek-DM> But if they were I’d set a game in a new genre
[17:27:03] <~Canageek-DM> Ohhhh
[17:27:04] <~Canageek-DM> >.>
[17:27:17] <Eowyn> :D
[17:27:59] <~Canageek-DM> Oh, then I’d probably fire you all and start over
[17:28:03] <~Canageek-DM> Tweak the concept a bit
[17:28:13] <Eowyn> Oh good, no total party kill
[17:28:15] <~Canageek-DM> however based on the early numbers I’d say there is no danger of that
[17:28:33] <Eowyn> Good, I have a hard time in civilian life.
[17:29:06] <~Canageek-DM> Most of our contesents seem to, I’m glad to provide you with profitable outlets
[17:29:12] <Eowyn> I haven’t met the rest of the team, what can you tell me about them?
[17:29:57] <~Canageek-DM> That is still being determined by our human resources department, but ideally we wold like a more aggressive spell caster and one or more frontline ifghters
[17:30:20] <~Canageek-DM> We have one of each so far ,though there is a contract issue with one so she may not be involed for a period of time
[17:31:10] <Eowyn> But then she hopes to join up when that’s resolved?
[17:31:13] fudgebob [~fudgebob@27B34E.4FEA8A.0EDFA7.34CDF3] has joined #Rune-X
[17:31:17] <Eowyn> Hi
[17:31:21] <fudgebob> hi
[17:31:33] <fudgebob> sorry for being late
[17:32:01] <Eowyn> Fine by me, Canageek was just roleplaying the producer with me
[17:32:24] <~Canageek-DM> Eowyn, can you summarize so that I can make sure everything is clear with you?
[17:34:16] <Eowyn> When I’m able to learn more battle magic you’ll help with my training. If we have a lot of trouble you’ll make some healing potions available.
[17:34:54] <Eowyn> But if we die, we die. (However, I believe I’m a very competent medic. Just hope I don’t get taken down.)
[17:35:45] <Eowyn> And the rest was mostly me selecting my close combat weapon, and I decided to keep using the bayonet I had in the army.
[17:35:57] <Eowyn> Did I miss anything important?
[17:36:49] <~Canageek-DM> Not that I can see
[17:37:12] <~Canageek-DM> (Fudgebob, what is your characters name and is it finished? We can drop out of character do to that)
[17:37:48] <fudgebob> ((I send the pdf already
[17:38:36] <~Canageek-DM> (Oh, you did, right)
[17:39:49] <~Canageek-DM> (Corwen?)
[17:41:29] fudgebob is looking for his copy
[17:46:00] <fudgebob> … and still looking.
[17:46:07] <~Canageek-DM> Forwarding it to you
[17:48:32] <~Canageek-DM> Sent
[…]
[17:51:28] <fudgebob> Eowyn: who is your character? :)
[17:52:03] <Eowyn> I’m Eowyn, a skilled combat medic
[17:52:20] <Eowyn> Ada is my RL name
[17:52:34] <fudgebob> ah :D
[17:52:59] <Eowyn> For combat magic I chose heal 6 so I can reattach severed limbs
[17:53:28] <Eowyn> And my character sheet so far is a lot of comments on the latest post on Canageek’s blog.
[17:54:35] <fudgebob> nice!
[17:54:51] <~Canageek-DM> Canageek-DM is Matthew, and also giving up setting up a Shoutcase stream of music for the gaming session as Ada woudln’t be able to listen anyway
[…]
[18:13:46] <~Canageek-DM> So do you have any questions while we wait or shall I just plan out the town by the dungeon?
[18:34:50] <~Canageek-DM> [14:58:41] <fudgebob> no, I sent the link via igor: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/128029/games/fudgebob%27s%20OQ%20charsheet.pdf
[18:36:30] Corwen [~fudgebob@27B34E.4FEA8A.0EDFA7.500996] is now known as Roberto
[18:37:01] Roberto takes the nearest available seat
[18:38:42] Eowyn sits near Roberto but not adjecent, in an aisle seat.
[…]
[18:40:44] <Roberto> “Why did you take this ‘job’, Eowyn? For fame, money, or both?”
[18:40:50] Canageek-DM [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as MC-Lemberg
[18:41:14] <~MC-Lemberg> d20
[18:41:15] Golem rolls the dice for MC-Lemberg (d20) and rolled 13.
[18:41:32] <Eowyn> “Mostly money. As I said, I can’t hold down a civilian job. And I’d rather not be a merc.”
[18:42:12] <Eowyn> “What about you, Roberto? And do you have a nickname, Rob, Bob?”
[18:42:49] <Roberto> “Right. I’m also gunning for that – money does change everything. Call me Eel”
[18:44:19] <Roberto> “If we’re teaming-up, we need more muscle… I can shoot but close-quarters-combat is not my thing”
[18:44:54] <~MC-Lemberg> “Alrighty you two, listen up. Here is how things are going to work: We land at a small airfeild somewhere in the boarderlands in about 4 hours. From there you will be dropped off by Jeep just outside a small town known as Pechersky”
[18:45:26] <Eowyn> “The producer briefed me, I’ll fill you in when we’ve got time.”
[18:45:46] <Roberto> “Then what, Mr. MC? … Uh ok, Eowyn”
[18:46:26] <~MC-Lemberg> “You’ve been given a map leading from town to the complex you are to raid. The local nation was a backwards Swords & Sorcery level kingdom untli the armies rolled over it, so they’ve seen guns and whatnot, but try not to spook the populace much”
[18:47:16] <~MC-Lemberg> “The owners of the complex oppsed said rolling over of the complex and have not been seen in a number of years, so it is highly likely they have died in battle, leaving it open for our use”
[18:49:10] Roberto readies his equipment
[18:49:28] <MC-Lemberg> “You choose when you are finished exploring on a per-person basis, and you will be credited for how deeply into the complex you explore, monsters killed, style, teamwork and other factors”
[18:51:07] <MC-Lemberg> “I also shouldn’t tell you this, but as you are new: We’ve not told the locals what you are doing, and our scrying spells and automata are subtle- if you get them angry by killing them, offending any religous or political belifes or sleeping with somebodies daughter you are on your own- take care when revealingwhat you are up to”
[18:51:50] <DM-OOC> Advantage of two connections: One dies and I can keep going
[18:52:03] <MC-Lemberg> “Are there any questions?
[18:52:42] <Roberto> “Aside from our stuff, are you giving us extra equipment?”
[18:53:29] <MC-Lemberg> “No, though if you have anything you wish to purchase with your remaning budget please let us know and we can have it waiting with the jeeps when we land”
[18:54:38] <Roberto> “Noted, MC.”
[18:55:30] Eowyn hands Lemberg a list.
[18:55:31] <MC-Lemberg> (let me know when you are ready to land: If you want to make any last minute purchaes, either dungeon gear or modern let me know: Keep in mind you are about to be tracped in a medevial economy so if you want to buy a roll o fduct tape you need to do it now )
[18:55:42] <DM-OOC> What is on the list?
[18:56:26] <Eowyn> (I will be providing the list after my sister is done checking email etc. on my laptop. I can list things like duct tape etc after kids are tucked in)
[18:56:39] <DM-OOC> Works for me
[18:58:38] <DM-OOC> The plane lands at a decrepit war-era airport, bouncing to stop on a runway, just before a nastly looking pothole
[18:58:49] <MC-Lemberg> The plane lands at a decrepit war-era airport, bouncing to stop on a runway, just before a giant pothole
[18:5[19:00:32] <Roberto> ( ok
[19:00:42] <Roberto> ( glock and body armor
[19:01:15] <Roberto> ( turns out to be “double-leather armor” ;)
[19:02:22] <DM-OOC> Works for me
[19:02:51] DM-OOC sketches the town you are going to in his mind
[19:04:33] <DM-OOC> Did you see the bit bout landing?
[19:04:53] <Eowyn> With a pothole? Yes
[19:04:57] <MC-Lemberg> “Oh, and before we land I’ll also need you to fill out these life-insurance and surviors benifits forms”
[19:05:10] Eowyn scribbles.
[19:05:33] Roberto looks up “I knew it.” *sighs and signs
[19:05:35] Eowyn lists Doctors without Borders as beneficiary.
[19:05:42] <DM-OOC> It turns out that for an evil corperations paying you to die for the publics enterainment they have really good benifits, though you do note they keep about half the the life insurance policy, though it is still far better then you could afford on your own
[19:06:33] <Roberto> “Mine is Socialists Anonymous”
[19:06:52] Eowyn says to Eel, “HR is looking for more members for our
[19:07:08] <MC-Lemberg> “Well, I guess neither of you will be using the descentents education fund…”
[19:07:22] <Eowyn> “Team, but one of them has some problems with her contract so hopefully she’ll join us later.”
[19:07:29] <DM-OOC> You then board the jeeps, and bounce over broken roads and around obvious battlefeilds and trenches
[19:07:53] <Roberto> *nods
[19:08:07] <MC-Lemberg> “The trip would be a lot faster, but most of the passes are so heavily mind that no one is going through them for the next hundred years. Helps keep the shooting location isolated and backwards though”
[19:08:22] <Eowyn> “Indeed.”
[19:09:03] <TheDM> You then turn around a mountain overlooking a great and fertile looking vally
[19:10:07] <TheDM> At the far end lies a small village, and through a pair of provided binoculars you see a small village of perhappes 300-500 people spread over the vally, with a small cluster of buildings forming the town proper being your destination
[19:10:34] Roberto [~fudgebob@27B34E.4FEA8A.0EDFA7.500996] is now known as Eel
[19:10:41] <MC-Lemberg> “The complex you want is at this end of the vally, about 4 hours hike from the town into the mountains”
[19:11:08] <MC-Lemberg> “The path is pretty hard to follow without a map, which we’ve obtained for you”
[19:11:23] <Eowyn> “That was my next question.”
[19:11:29] MC-Lemberg hands you each a detailed arial reconnosince map
[19:11:51] <Eel> *grunts
[19:12:16] Eowyn scans the map, then stows it in a thigh pocket.
[19:12:24] <MC-Lemberg> Any other questions before the jeep heads off?
[19:13:10] <Eowyn> Oh! How to contact you when we’re ready to leave.
[19:13:11] <Eel> “None for now… lets go, Eowyn”
[19:13:24] <MC-Lemberg> “Ah, right”
[19:13:44] MC-Lemberg hands you each a small sattelite phone the size of a housing brick
[19:14:47] <Eel> “Thanks. What’s it for?”
[19:14:51] Eowyn familiarizes herself with the controls and asks any questions about how to operate it before stowing it.”
[19:16:32] <TheDM> So are you headed to the town, or the dungeon or other?
[19:17:43] Eowyn looks at Eel.
[19:17:54] <Eel> “I say we bypass the town (can’t stand crowds, esp. strange, new ones). Dungeon, Eowyn?”
[19:19:03] <Eowyn> “Sure.”
[19:20:03] TheDM was not expecting that, grabs the next section of his notes
[19:20:22] <Eel> (( ack. np if we go to town, TheDM
[19:20:39] <TheDM> OOC: not a problem at all, just wasn’t expecting it
[19:20:49] <TheDM> OOC: Just means I skip ahead a bit
[19:21:00] <Eel> (( ok. gulps
[19:23:44] Eel takes point and Eowyn covers the rear… the only possible combination for a two-man team *shakes head
[19:24:22] <TheDM> The complex you arrive at is hewn from a great rock outcropping at the crest of a large wooded hill. Winds buffet the hill continuously, blowing and whistling through the trees, vines and other vegetation which blanket the prominence on all sides. The rock itself is a heavy blackish slate.
[19:25:30] <Eel> “Do you see anything, Eowyn? An entrance or guards?”
[19:25:36] <Eel> *whispering
[19:26:03] <Eowyn> (Dice rolling syntax?)
[19:26:25] <TheDM> d20
[19:26:26] Golem rolls the dice for TheDM (d20) and rolled 5.
[19:26:37] <TheDM> OOC: Actually you don’t need to roll
[19:26:44] <TheDM> A cave-like opening, somewhat obscured by vegetation, is noticeable at the end of a treacherous pathway which leads up to the craggy outcropping of black rock.
[19:26:52] <Eowyn> “There!”
[19:26:56] Eowyn points.
[19:27:24] <Eel> *nods “Let’s move… carefully”
[19:27:49] TheDM waits for what you do
[19:28:59] <Eel> (( I approach the cave mouth, crouched and ready for bear
[19:29:48] <TheDM> The opening is covered in vines and branches
[19:31:01] <Eel> (( how dense?
[19:31:27] <TheDM> Lightly covered, roll K:nature
[19:32:03] <Eowyn> I have my rifle out, scanning between the cave and my rear.
[19:32:18] <Eel> d100
[19:32:19] Golem rolls the dice for Eel (d100) and rolled 83.
[19:34:28] <TheDM> Eel: Is that under your skill? I’m guessing no
[19:34:55] <TheDM> You know nothing about the plants in the opening
[19:34:56] <Eowyn> If you ask me I can roll. Eowyn didn’t think to wonder.
[19:35:53] <Eel> “Ack, I can’t identify the foliage. How about you, Eowyn?”
[19:36:13] <Eowyn> D100
[19:36:14] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 79.
[19:36:18] <Eowyn> Dunno
[19:37:38] <TheDM> Well, you can easily brush aside the foiliage if you wish to doso
[19:38:01] <Eel> *shrugs, goes in, brushing aside the vines with his rifle
[19:38:41] Eowyn follows.
[19:39:08] <TheDM> By sweeping aside some of the vines and branches, the opening becomes easily accessible to human-size explorers.
[19:39:27] <TheDM> The opening leads straight into the rock formation, with a 10′ wide corridor leading the way to a large wooden door.
[19:39:45] <Eel> *still crouched, Eel exchanges his rifle with his handgun
[19:40:23] <Eel> *Looks for a door knob or something
[19:40:41] <TheDM> There is a large metal handle
[19:41:03] <Eel> d100 checking for traps
[19:41:13] <TheDM> Eel: You are examaning the door?
[19:41:15] <TheDM> d100
[19:41:15] Golem rolls the dice for TheDM (d100) and rolled 10.
[19:41:20] <TheDM> Nice,
[19:41:52] <Eel> “I see something”
[19:42:05] Eowyn slings her rifle over her back.
[19:42:30] <Eowyn> And I have my dagger handy on my belt, but not out.
[19:42:52] <TheDM> Bits of wood have been chipped away from the edge, indicating that it has previously been forced
[19:42:59] <TheDM> OOC: Sorry, thought I’d sent that already
[19:44:13] Eowyn reaches into her left thigh pocket and removes a brown rat, which she places on her shoulder.
[19:44:35] MC-Lemberg [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as Rat
[19:44:38] Rat chitters
[19:44:41] Eel , seeing no dead bodies, opens the door with his shotgun’s tip
[19:44:52] <Eel> “Whoa! What’s that thing?!”
[19:45:01] <TheDM> The
[19:45:02] <TheDM> door opens freely
[19:45:12] Rat [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as TheDM-OOC
[19:45:13] <Eel> *still whispering
[19:45:32] <TheDM-OOC> I forgot, how are we going to handle mapping? This is an old school adventure, the first one TSR put out
[19:45:40] <Eowyn> “My pet rat.”
[19:45:44] <TheDM-OOC> So they spend a lto of time talking about mapping
[19:45:53] <Eowyn> Old school means we should map it.
[19:46:00] Eel turns on his flashlight, in his offhand
[19:46:14] <Eowyn> I have graph paper so I could do so tonight, although no pencil.
[19:46:34] <Eowyn> But then to share it my best technology is to take a photo with my phone.
[19:47:32] <Eowyn> Fudgebob, shall I map then?
[19:48:10] <Eel> “Yes, Eowyn, please map our route… I don’t want to get lost in here”
[19:48:40] TheDM signs, glad I don’t have to mess around with maptools
[19:49:36] Canageek will give the measurements in feet so as not to be a dick
[19:50:07] <Eowyn> “My rat’s name is Patsyuk.”
[19:50:18] <Eowyn> As Wil Wheaton says.
[19:50:32] <Eel> “Past Yuck-y?”
[19:50:59] <TheDM> From the opening to the door it is 60 feet straight north
[19:51:03] Eowyn unslings her pack and retrieves notepad and pencil. Also a rat treat, which she feeds to Patsyuk.
[19:51:14] <Eowyn> “Ratty, basically.”
[19:52:20] Eel shines the flashlight down the hall
[19:52:52] Eowyn scribbles.
[19:53:10] <Eowyn> How wide is the hall, 10’?
[19:53:20] <TheDM> Wait, 10′ in width is how wide?
[19:53:24] <TheDM> 10 feet or yards?
[19:53:38] <Eowyn> Ten feet
[19:53:40] <Eel> (( feet for dungeons methinks
[19:53:49] <Eowyn> (3 meters, plus a bit)
[19:55:03] bynw [~fenix@OWIRCN-cd9b0e44.client.mchsi.com] has joined #Rune-X
[19:55:17] <Eowyn> 10″ is inches and I don’t think there’s a corresponding symbol for yards. Hi bynw
[19:55:38] <TheDM> The passage continues 120′ before reaching another door, with 3 sets of alcoves 20′, 70′, 110′ down the corridor from the door
[19:55:50] <TheDM> that is [19:45:32] <TheDM-OOC> I forgot, how are we going to handle mapping? This is an old school adventure, the first one TSR put out
[19:45:40] <Eowyn> “My pet rat.”
[19:45:44] <TheDM-OOC> So they spend a lto of time talking about mapping
[19:45:53] <Eowyn> Old school means we should map it.
[19:46:00] Eel turns on his flashlight, in his offhand
[19:46:14] <Eowyn> I have graph paper so I could do so tonight, although no pencil.
[19:46:34] <Eowyn> But then to share it my best technology is to take a photo with my phone.
[19:46:51] TheDM-OOC [~Canageek@OWIRCN-ebfed2a1.vc.shawcable.net] is now known as Canageek
[19:46:59] ChanServ [ChanServ@chanserv.otherworlders.org] has set mode +qo Canageek Canageek
[1[19:59:55] <Eowyn> So when you say twenty feet down, is there 20′ of wall till the *start* of the alcove?
[20:00:24] <TheDM> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ada_kerman/
[20:00:30] Eowyn glances at the first pair of alcoves
[20:00:47] <TheDM> The alcove starts 10′ from the door and ends 20′ from it
[20:01:06] <Eel> (( how dark is the dungeon? what are the walls made of?
[20:01:31] <TheDM> Pitch black, you will need lights
[20:01:41] <TheDM> The hallway is carved from the same black shale
[20:01:57] <Eel> (( damp or dry?
[20:02:05] <~Canageek> Dry
[20:02:27] TheDM isn’t going into why there would not be shale in this type of vally and will just use the adventure as written
[20:03:16] Eel continously pans the flashlight while guarding over Eowyn, who is mapping the area
[20:04:18] <Eowyn> First map is emailed to Flickr.
[20:04:39] Eowyn nods at Eel in thanks and tucks her pencil behind her ear.
[20:05:16] <~Canageek> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ada_kerman/5798778740/in/photostream
[20:06:12] <Eowyn> (I’m your maptools ;))
[20:06:16] <~The_DM> Looks good to me
[20:06:31] <~The_DM> Give me a tactics roll
[20:06:45] <Eel> (( nice!
[20:07:33] <Eel> d100
[20:07:33] Golem rolls the dice for Eel (d100) and rolled 73.
[20:08:05] <Eel> (( meh
[20:08:17] <Eowyn> D100
[20:08:17] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 39.
[20:08:56] <Eel> (( tactics would be perception? or what?
[20:09:08] <~The_DM> Knowledge?
[20:09:22] <Eowyn> What sort?
[20:09:28] <~The_DM> Preception -10 (I’m not using the only 25/50/75 guidelines as I disagree with the advice)
[20:09:48] <~The_DM> Military, tactics….this is a game of ‘I have a skill that is close, I’ll ask the DM’
[20:09:53] <Eowyn> I fail then, with a percep of 33
[20:10:10] <Eel> (( failed too
[20:10:14] <~The_DM> Don’t you have some military skill?
[20:10:23] <Eowyn> Combat?
[20:10:52] <~The_DM> I’ll give you it- the alchoves are probably gardposts
[20:10:55] <~The_DM> the nearest set are empty
[20:11:13] <~The_DM> empty and barren of any markings.
[20:11:53] Eowyn pulls out her flashlight and tucks the notepad in a pocket.
[20:12:30] <Eowyn> Eel, go ahead and stow your light so you can do more with your gun.
[20:12:45] Eel complies
[20:13:10] <Eel> “Where to, stalwart mapper?” *smiling
[20:13:30] <Eowyn> So… do we want to have a commanding officer? Seems a bit unnecessary with such a small team
[20:14:01] <Eowyn> “Only one way to go, forward to the next door. Being wary of the other niches.”
[20:14:18] <Eel> “Too much I think… let just do the Buddy System, ok?”
[20:14:20] <~The_DM> Preception rolls
[20:14:56] <~The_DM> Please and thank you
[20:15:20] <Eel> d100
[20:15:20] Golem rolls the dice for Eel (d100) and rolled 57.
[20:16:31] <Eowyn> D100
[20:16:31] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 4.
[20:16:37] <Eowyn> Ding ding ding
[20:16:38] <Eel> (( yay! I made it
[20:16:59] <Eel> (( wow!
[20:17:02] <Eowyn> Nice. I guess a sniper needs high perception
[20:17:19] Eowyn thanks the golem
[20:18:08] <Eel> (( hmmm. I forgot about getting grenades :(
[20:18:21] <Eel> (( what do we see, The_DM
[20:18:31] <~The_DM> OCC: Explosives + Treasure = happy DM
[20:19:26] <~The_DM> You notice that there is a pair of steps at the end of the hallway, with several slumped over forms on them
[20:19:47] <~The_DM> Eowyn can also tell that there is something stange about the walls in the middle alcoves as you approach them
[20:20:32] <Eowyn> “See that, Eel?”
[20:20:45] <Eel> “What? A trap?!?”
[20:20:50] <Eowyn> Do the steps go anywhere or is it just a raised area?
[20:21:00] Eowyn shrugs.
[20:21:00] <~Canageek> To a doorway at the end of the hallway
[20:21:03] <Eowyn> Could be.
[20:21:36] Eel looks around for a ‘pole’
[20:22:02] <~Canageek> There are a bunch of sticks back at the entrance
[20:22:22] <Eowyn> Rolling mechanisms.
[20:22:25] <Eowyn> D100
[20:22:26] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 60.
[20:22:30] <Eowyn> Nada
[20:23:13] <~The_DM> You have no idea, and can’t place the feeling
[20:23:17] <~The_DM> it just looks odd
[20:23:53] Eel gets a stick, uses it as a probe at the walls and steps and bodies “Yell if you hear ‘clicks’, Eowyn”
[20:24:01] Eowyn [~AndChat@OWIRCN-6e121c80.sub-174-252-103.myvzw.com] is now known as Ada
[20:24:05] Ada yawns
[20:24:22] <Ada> I should go soon, but would like to get to the next door first.
[20:24:26] Ada [~AndChat@OWIRCN-6e121c80.sub-174-252-103.myvzw.com] is now known as Eowyn
[20:24:27] <Eel> d100
[20:24:27] Golem rolls the dice for Eel (d100) and rolled 44.
[20:24:31] <Eowyn> Perception
[20:24:37] <Eowyn> D100
[20:24:38] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 43.
[20:24:46] <Eowyn> Nothing
[20:24:47] <Eel> (( nice rolls
[20:25:07] <~Canageek> Alrighty, what are you doing? Going on to the 3rd alcove? You really can’t tel lmuch more about this one
[20:25:31] <Eowyn> He said he was poking the bodies, which are all the way to the door
[20:26:06] <~Canageek> Oh, ok, you stop when you hit the 3rd alco[20:16:31] <Eowyn> D100
[20:16:31] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 4.
[20:16:37] <Eowyn> Ding ding ding
[20:16:38] <Eel> (( yay! I made it
[20:16:59] <Eel> (( wow!
[20:17:02] <Eowyn> Nice. I guess a sniper needs high perception
[20:17:19] Eowyn thanks the golem
[20:18:08] <Eel> (( hmmm. I forgot about getting grenades :(
[20:18:21] <Eel> (( what do we see, The_DM
[20:18:31] <~The_DM> OCC: Explosives + Treasure = happy DM
[20:19:26] <~The_DM> You notice that there is a pair of steps at the end of the hallway, with several slumped over forms on them
[20:19:47] <~The_DM> Eowyn can also tell that there is something stange about the walls in the middle alcoves as you approach them
[20:20:32] <Eowyn> “See that, Eel?”
[20:20:45] <Eel> “What? A trap?!?”
[20:20:50] <Eowyn> Do the steps go anywhere or is it just a raised area?
[20:21:00] Eowyn shrug[20:30:42] Eel signals Eowyn to jump back if things go south
[20:32:00] <Eowyn> A knowledge roll… (Culture, other?) On Zelligar and Rogahn
[20:32:04] <Eowyn> D100
[20:32:04] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 83.
[20:32:10] <Eel> d100
[20:32:10] Golem rolls the dice for Eel (d100) and rolled 18.
[20:32:26] <~Canageek> Not a chance, Eel: They are not major international figures, though they could be local
[20:32:27] <Eel> 18 out of 48
[20:32:28] <Eowyn> A cartoony ? appears over Eowyn’s head
[20:32:35] <~Canageek> You’d need to have rolled a 01 to get that
[20:32:55] <Eel> :)
[20:34:06] <~The_DM> So, what are you doing?
[20:34:53] <~The_DM> OOC: Turns out you don’t need a bot to roll dice
[20:34:56] <~The_DM> !1d100
[20:35:03] <Eowyn> Stopping for the night, possibly after we open the next door. I’m not going to map more today though
[20:35:08] <~The_DM> !roll 1d100
[20:35:09] <@ChanServ> 34 == 34
[…much dice rolling here removed]
[20:35:43] Eowyn grins.
[20:35:44] Eel searches the bodies
[…]
[20:35:55] Eowyn does too.
[20:36:04] <Eowyn> D100
[20:36:04] Golem rolls the dice for Eowyn (D100) and rolled 78.
[20:36:14] <Eowyn> Nothing on perception
[20:37:14] <~The_DM> Past the third pair of alcoves and at the end of the corridor from the entrance are two steps up. At this intersection is a grisly sight—the remains of a hand-to-hand battle where no less than five combatants died.
[20:38:37] Argosy [~Argosy@OWIRCN-4c552661.az.npgco.com] has joined #Rune-X
[20:38:48] <Eel> hi Argosy
[20:38:57] <Eel> sadly, we just ended the game :(
[20:39:06] <Argosy> Aw.
[20:39:09] Eel [~fudgebob@27B34E.4FEA8A.0EDFA7.500996] is now known as fudgebob
[20:39:36] <~The_DM> Three of them were adventurers themselves, explorers from the outer world. This ill-fated trio obviously had their first and last battle at this spot. Their opponents,also slain here, are two guards. The bodies arrayedhere, each in various states of decomposition, are as follows(the stench of decaying bodies is strong and repulsive, andthe sight doubly so):
[20:40:13] <~The_DM> You are searching them, correct?
[20:40:22] <~The_DM> Eowyn: Want to do this next session?
[20:40:23] <fudgebob> yes
[20:40:25] <Eowyn> We both said so
[20:40:37] <~The_DM> Body #1—A human fighter, slumped against a wall. His broken sword, sheared off about eight inches above the pommel, tells the story of his demise. The body has beenstripped of any armor, and there are no items of value onthe remains, other than a belt pouch containing 5 gold
[20:40:37] <~The_DM> pieces (g.p.).
[20:40:37] <Eowyn> Depends how much is on them
[20:41:01] <fudgebob> *grabs the gold
[20:41:11] <~The_DM> Oh crap, not gold
[20:41:12] <Eowyn> Eel, shall we keep party treasure and divide it when we come out?
[20:41:13] <~The_DM> One second
[20:41:14] <~The_DM> >.>
[20:41:46] <Eowyn> Pause now as the DM converts the currency to the new rules
[20:42:17] <~The_DM> Local silver peices, each about half the size of a dime
[20:42:33] <Eowyn> How big are our regular silvers?
[20:42:51] <fudgebob> *Eel “I’ll hold it for us, divvy it up later, ok?”
[20:42:57] <~The_DM> (The same as sp from your inventory: I got a replica silver coin from a shipwrek from my parents, was amazed how tiny they are)
[20:43:11] <Eowyn> Cool
[20:43:40] Eowyn nods at Eel.
[20:43:55] <~The_DM> Body #2—A human magic-user, impaled against a wall. The killing sword, still thrust through the body, is lodged in the wall, which has a large section of wood at this point.
[20:45:02] <Eowyn> (( detect magic on the sword. Oops, I can’t! *grin*
[20:45:10] <~The_DM> The body is bereft of any items of great value. The magic-user’s robe, now bloodstained and ruined, has a pocket and within it is a purse containing 2 s.p. and apouch full of garlic buds.
[20:45:34] <Eowyn> “I’ll take the garlic. Unless you want half?”
[20:45:52] <fudgebob> *Eel “I could use that sword. Or do you want it, Eowyn?” *pulling the weapon out
[20:45:58] <fudgebob> … cleaning the blood with the magic-user’s robes
[20:46:08] <Eowyn> “I’m good with my bayonet for now.”
[20:46:39] <~The_DM> When the sword is removed, the body crumples to the floor, exposing a blood-stained carving. The carved letters form the word “QUASQUETON” in the “common” language.
[20:46:53] Eowyn removes a pouch containing assorted spices from her pack and stows the garlic.”
[20:47:02] <fudgebob> “Thanks. You keep the garlic, I’ll keep the silver… less complicated inventory-wise”
[20:47:18] <~The_DM> The sword, upon being removed, proves practically worthless, since its handle is very loose and the overall quality of the weapon is very poor.
[20:47:20] Eowyn notes the word on her pad.
[20:47:50] <~The_DM> If someone’s cient keeps good logs can you emai them to me? KVIRC does, but they are ugy
[20:48:29] <Eowyn> I don’t know of logs with this app
[20:48:55] <fudgebob> (( oops. I gotta go now… got surpirse visitors
[20:49:05] <~The_DM> Alrighty, we can pick up here next time
[20:49:09] <~The_DM> I’ll email you all
[20:49:33] <Eowyn> Good game guys
[20:49:43] The_DM agress
[20:49:48] <~The_DM> Looking forward to trying combat

So here are the minutes from the character creation and setting discussion. There is still room for new players, and I will be updating this as we go.

Minutes

We are going to start with the modern dungeoncrawling idea, Rune-X, and after the first adventure possibly move on to the dimension hopping game

Mullem is in favour of adapting a classic adventure.

Guns will be allowed in the crawl, but be reduced in power to avoid risk to the audiance. Therefore they will ‘count as’ bows

The character concepts:

[13:25:09] <Mark> I’d like to keep it simple. A fighter-type. Maybe with a little bit of military experience. A smattering of skills and maybe a bit of battle-magic. Someone fairly resourceful, with a focus on fighting.
Going to it for the fame and glory

[13:25:59] <Ada> So maybe I should be a combat medic.
Is having trouble adapting to civilian life, and the money makes it more lucrative then mercenary work

Quirkygirl will be making a sorcery users. She likes danger, exitement and killing things.

Some imporant exerpts:
[13:22:14] <~Canageek> As I don’t have much of a defined world, I’m going to set the game in something vaugly related to our world, but with magic and whatnot
[13:23:31] <~Canageek> It just came out of a large war, and the Emporor wants something to keep the people happy in the post-war depression as the industries retool
[13:24:05] <~Canageek> So he brought in a new form of gladiator games, which have been hugely popular
[13:24:43] <~Canageek> I’m thinking a late-60s level of technology, with some specific advances in the areas of television as the Emporor views that as an easy tool to control the masses
[13:25:27] <~Canageek> Wait, make that modern, but computers are heavily maingframe based and state owned

So as you may have guessed from my review of Dungeonslayers, I will not be running a game of it this summer. I’ve gotten into a GURPS game on Wednesdays, but well, I have weekends free. However, I forgot how much 1.5 hours in transit and 8 hours of work a day took out of you, even if you have free time, so I’m going to have to limit what and when I’m capable of running.

1) I have been looking at what system to use. So far I’ve looked at FUDGE, ‘Warrior, Rogue & Mage’ and both Red Box Hack and Old School Hack. None of them have seemed to be quite what I am looking for, though I would like to place some FATE & FUDGE. The current front runner for my summer game is GORE. GORE was designed to be an eldrich horror game, in the sprite of another game I play a lot. However, it uses a more D&D like magic system and is freely available, so I think with some house rules it could make a good, if high danger, dungeon crawling game. Additionally, it is simple enough that I think I could convert old D&D monsters to it- Since it is % based I could just make a D&D character of the appropriate level and see what that monsters chance to hit would be, then use that.

2) I’m still interested in the following ideas from my planning post– I’m having less energy after work then I thought, so some of them are not as feasible. Basically I don’t know if I have the energy to run the Dimensional Hopper game and Tangents is definitely out- I don’t have the energy for the planning either of these would take. I’m also less sure of the Megandungeon based ones until I get my feet under me- I’m thinking I could start a standard game with smaller dungeons, and if it goes well move it into a megadungeon. On the plus side, if we use GORE then we could include guns in the X-Crawl based settings if we wanted.

I know what times I can do this at now: Friday night post 7pm, any time Saturday, or Sunday night, ending no later then 9pm, all Pacific Time. I don’t get hope from work until 6 most days, later on many, and that leaves me just enough time to shop, eat and relax a bit before I have to go to bed. This allows me to move things along a bit, as I have narrowed down the times to the point I feel fine taking applications to join in and suggestions on what to run.

3) I think Google Wave, Maptools, IRC or similar is more my speed right now. I don’t have a webcam or a decent mic, so yeah, voice seems like a bad choice.

So yeah, there are my current plans for an online game. I’m willing to look at other free gaming systems, and if I do use GORE it will be with some houserules (Probably more skills, might use pointbuy. It has rules for gaining HP already, but I will have to look at the system more. I also might tack on a simple XP system, as ‘when you finish the adventure’ doesn’t work in megadungeons.

As you all probably know, I am planning on running an online game this summer. I am not officially recruiting yet, as I am unsure of my schedule once I start my job, and that seems like an important thing to know. However, I love writing out game ideas, so I thought I would set some down here.

Idea #1: “XSlayers” (Ie Dungeonslayers meets X-Crawl) I’ve blogged about this one a lot before, specifically when I first mentioned my summer game. To recap: The players are sports starts who descend into short, premade dungeons before a live and televised audience. A Master of Ceremonies runs the show, providing live commentary, flavour and possibly altering the dungeon as the players move through it.

Idea #2: “Megaslayers” This is very similar to idea #1, except that the players move through a large megadungeon. A megadungeon is one of those giant, many levelled complexes with perhaps hundreds of rooms in it, where the players will never truly “clear” it: New monsters will move in, old ones will leave, and monsters may well migrate as the players kill others and create vacuums within the dungeon. This is set in the same world as number 1, but instead of being a short sports event this is a weekly show. Players still are in a modern setting, but instead of being in a small dungeon 1-page dungeon style affair they are in a long megadungeon, and thus can play monsters off against one another, retreat to the surface, will have to rest in the dungeon and conserve resources.

Idea #3: “XSlayers Classic” This would be like idea #1 except that instead of going through an adaptation of a one-page dungeon or something short that I cook up the part will go through an adaption of a classic adventure. Probably an old TSR adventure, but I can take suggestions provided players promise not to use out of game knowledge to their advantage. This could very well branch into “Megaslayers Classic” if a longer adventure like the Temple of Elemental Evil is chosen to.

Idea #4: Straight up Dungeonslayers: If the modern-reality TV dungeon idea is not popular then I could go with running a traditonal fantasy version of Dungeonslayers.

Idea #5: “Dungeonslayers Classic”: If people like the idea of mixing Dungeonslayers and classic D&D adventures, but do not like the idea of the modern-dungeon crawling then I could do that to.

Idea #7: Dimensional Hoppers: Another idea that I have blogged about before, this game would involve the players travelling across dimensions in search of a way home. Each dimension will be part of a slightly different genre and tech level for a highly episodic feel, but with (hopefully) continuing characters. I would be using a variant BRP system.

Idea #8: Dungeonworld/The Sargasso of Dungeons: Really I can’t think of much to add to this, except that I’d probably use Dungeonslayers, or if I can’t get support for that something like Warrior, Rouge & Mage or a retroclone. This one could be modern, fantasy or some combination of the above.

Idea #9: Tangents. I recently found the Tangents book for Alternity and discovered that it has a really cool adventure series in it. I would be willing to run this with the caveat that players either have to make their own characters or use a premade one from the adventure, as I don’t have enough experience to help them with it as I do the other systems.

I think I’m the most interested in running #1,#3 and #7, followed by #4, #5, #8 and #9, but if I get a bunch of enthusiastic players for any of them I think I’d catch the enthusiasm myself pretty quickly. Also it should be noted that while I listed a bunch of megadungeon ideas they all rated pretty low on my list: This is likely because I’ve not run enough dungeons yet to create a good atmosphere in most of them, and have them react organically to events in the dungeon. The Sargasso would be an inherently random place, so I think it might work more easily… That isn’t to say I wouldn’t try, which is why I listed them. Ideas which I really like, but am unsure I could run, like this idea I have for a game set on a Spacehulk/Sargasso of Death setting I haven’t listed, as I am sure I could run it, but can’t think of a system I am comfortable enough with and that has enough creatures for me to stock it with.

So, does anyone have any feedback on these ideas? Would anyone be interested in playing in one of them? Questions on bits of the setting that seem unclear? Just want more details on one or more of them? Please leave a comment!

I’ve been thinking of running an online game of Dungeonslayers this summer if I can find enough interested players. I’m going to start putting more work into this once I am done exams (end of the week), but am starting to put thought into it during my study breaks.

I’ve been a fan of modern dungeon crawling ideas since I heard about XCrawl, though I was reasonably disappointed in the book and setting when I read them (Great ideas, poor implementation –though latter books improved it a fair bit) and have done some writing on the topic.

I was looking at the dungeons posted and was thinking that it might be fun to mix things up by adding in a modern twist.

I’ve started writing up a bit of background. I’ve used some ideas from X-Crawl, some of my own and random bits from a couple of other places.

Gladiatorial matches have long been a staple of the Empire. For years gladiatorial matches have been popular on television. Recently a small arena owner, bored of traditional events set up an obstacle course filled with lethal traps and several monsters in mini-arenas. The event was huge, and the sport of Dungeonslayers was born. The mazes quickly evolved into full blown dungeons, more monsters were added, each slayer has dozens of statistics tabulated and compiled after each dungeon and managers, bookies and fans pay pour over these numbers. Slayers start in simple dungeons made of plywood, scrap metal and concrete slaying rats and spiders, and if they live eventually face demons and dragons in recreation dungeons in front of live audiences of half a million. Guns are not allowed in the dungeons as it makes it far to hard to have a live audience, but a fair amount of other things are allowed.

Dungeons would be similar to normal, but the traps may use modern mechanisms and there is of course live commentary and occasional anachronisms. Guns are not allowed in dungeons as it makes it too hard to have live audiences. I am also thinking that a a late 80s-early 90s level of technology would work quite well- TV is big, possibly some BBSes, but less gadgets and whatnot for players to want me to rule on, while at the same time being familiar enough to me to be comfortable with it. Magic replaces technology in some instances, however due to black boxing no one really cares about which is which.

Any suggestions on using Dungeonslayers for this? Ideas for me to put in my dungeons? What about converting traditional fantasy dungeons to have a live-sports feel? Heck, would anyone be interested in playing? I’ve not worked out times or medium or whatnot yet, but I can start work on that once I have preliminary expressions of interest.

Well, sorry for the long gap between posts, school distracted me for a while. I’ll try to post more regularly after exams. I’ve got my first ever blog recommendation coming up, which I meant to write up oh, a few months ago and got busy. Anyway, until next time, Stay Geeky.

I’ve been thinking of my old modern dungeon crawling idea more, and have thrown together a couple of DJs for an XCrawl like event. I found that the information on the DJs in the xcrawl book was a touch bland, with a couple of very interesting DJs, but most of them rather bland. I find that this is one of the most interesting ideas of XCrawl as the DJ designs the dungeon. I think that every DJ will have some sort of trademarks and themes they like to place in the dungeon, to let the fans watching instantly recognize them. This will also help make each crawl feel a bit different, so that the players don’t encounter dungeon after dungeon of 10×10 rooms.

The first idea I had was DJ Elemental. Elemental themed dungeons are not a new idea, I mean, look at the Temple of Elemental Evil, so it struck me that someone in the dungeon crawling league must enjoy elemental themed dungeons. They would have a very distinctive visual element, allow lots of dramatic special effects, and have a number of very obvious monsters. So without further ado: DJ ELEMENTAL!

Sorry for the lack of posts in so long, I’ve been insanely busy with class, working from when I wake up till 2am type of busy. I will hopefully find a little time during my exam break, but really you should be looking for new posts after Christmas.

So a couple of updates:

I’ve talked to my group and they want to stick with BRP/CoC for now, largely due to liking their characters. However, I’m planning a big finally for the campaign, as one of the 2 remaining original players is graduating, and the others has a plan in mind for retiring her character. That means I am on the lookout for non-horror BRP adventures if anyone has any recommendations. Oh and they want more combat, in CoC as well. This should remove many characters very, very quickly.

Secondly…. I’ve started planning my next online game. I might run some maptools, IRC or skype or such over the Christmas break, failing that I’ll set up a play-by-post in April, after the end of 2nd semester.

Anyway the idea is…. a dungeon crawling game loosely based on XCrawl, with bonus experience for narrating your actions like a sports commentator, and a 2nd thread for non-player commentary. Since part of the game would be to please the crowd at the end of every adventure there would be a vote for the best character by the observers, with an XP bonus for amusing the audience.

To make this more silly your game states would be your stats in world, tracked the same way that they do baseball stats. My Dad likes baseball because of all the stats you can track and the weird things that happen (For example there is one play, don’t as me what it is, that has only happened 3 times. 2 of them were on consecutive days, as some player heard about it and thought ‘Shoot, I could do that’ and managed to do it the next day.)
Now instead of batting average you have BAB or THAC0, and so on (I was going to give more examples, but I don’t know baseball stats). Instead of some odd play with passes and runners you have “The last time a Young Adult Red Dragon was felled in 3 rounds by a 5th level party was back in 1996 by the ‘Sharpe Dressed Elves’….”

I’ve talked about this, and written about it so much that I want to give it a try. I’ll have to write an adventure, or at least convert one as I’m not running 3.5 or 4e online, they are both way too slow. I’m thinking of some retroclone or old edition since combat goes faster, possibly with a BRP style d% skills system tacked on (Very light weight: Like a page long in total).

3. The Empire: The NAE created XCrawl under a national charter for one purpose: To keep the populace entertained and distracted. It does that very, very well. It has also turned out to have a variety of other economic (and quasi-military) functions, and it has been turned to the end of social control in a number of other arenas. Potential dissidents, both citizens and inhabitants of NAE-controlled areas of the underdark, are channeled into XCrawl. There, they can safely be turned into being more supportive of the establishment by buying into it, or maybe you get lucky and they die. Hey, accidents happen. The official rules of XCrawl are set up by a Senate subcommittee, although the Emperor himself is occasionally involved. His consultations are taken, of course, very seriously. They also take testimony and suggestions from Referees, DJs, and the occasional Adventurer, if it’s deemed appropriate. Or if they just want a chance to invite him to their kid’s birthday party. He *idolizes* them, you see, and it’d mean a lot to the family…

The gist of this is: There are people in the political sphere who want to keep their finger buried deep in the pie. They don’t do this for fun, they do this because they have an agenda. If a politician has expended resources in making a team or a DJ into his highly-placed pawn, you can hurt him by cutting that finger off.

The only problem I see with this is that I’m my experience players that love long dungeon crawls will be bored with Machevialian politics and vis versa. That was one of my big complaints about the xcrawl books actually, too much time on the world not enough on xcrawl itself. I’d be more interested in the local politics of the arena and the bookies and whatnot myself, but could see this working. I do want some non-combat stuff to break up the crawls as I get bored after 40 min or so of combat or a couple hours without roleplay. I want to do some long crawls like XCrawl but am still looking for a way to do so. I will keep your ideas in mind if I ever actually run this.

4. The Refs: The Refs are, undoubtedly, the cleanest part of the whole XCrawl machine. They must avoid both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety. They make sure that the rules are enforced. However, XCrawl being a game of high complexity and constant innovation, they also have many discretionary powers. They make sure that a dungeon and the tactics used in it are “fair,” and appropriate to the level at which the competition is rated for (Sure, “level” as in the 1-30 number the PCs are at isn’t an in-game concept, but there are relative levels of badassery, and we assume that there are people in the game-world whose business it is to judge those and make decisions based on them.) They can declare Adventurers or the DJ to be out of line, they can assess penalties, etc. They are almost always Lawful personalities, and their organization is rigorously self-policing.

However, they are allowed to play favorites, just a little bit. That’s what discretion means, after all. If a monster gets loose and the PCs risk injury or loss of points to save audience members, guess what? Refs remember that. What goes around comes around. Does a DJ pull a fast one and use a last-minute switchup designed to screw the party? Sometimes that’s fair, sometimes it’s bad for the game. The Ref may not do anything about it, but then again maybe they mark it down in the ledger for later. Oh yeah, and the Refs talk to each other. It is possible for an Adventurer, a party, or a DJ to get on the bad side of the Refs as a whole, and then hoo-boy look out. Referees answer to the organization as a whole. And they watch the games. If there is too much blatant favoritism, they’ll teleport a guy out there and jerk the acting referee during a commercial break. It happens every now and again. Or maybe it doesn’t. Your call.

So we are talking Hockey refs here, not football (By which I mean Soccer). That might be an interesting variant where the DJs are not unbiased and the rules are very fast & loose. No, I’m not referencing that Irish/French game at ALLLLL…. (actually I don’t follow soccer but it made the news and came to mind reading this). Carrying on with this idea it would be an interesting change if there were very few rules in XCrawl but a lot of traditions. For example in soccer there is no rule that play stops when someone is injured but it is tradition to kick the ball out of bounds. A player or DJ could get a nasty reputation for breaking these traditions just a little. A rift forms in the fans who love the blood this creates and the traditionalists who long for the old clean days.

5. The Sponsors: XCrawl is money. Big money. The pay-per-view guys make a fortune, the networks make a fortune, the merchandisers make a fortune, the cities that host the crawls make a fortune, the monster-wranglers and summoners and so forth make fortunes, even the guys that design traps and summon the cameras can make tidy sums. The people who are just in it for the money come under the wide umbrella of sponsors. Sure, NBC and Budweiser don’t exactly have the same interests, but they’re in the same bed together enough that I’m going to put them all here. What you need to know is this:

Cities like to have either their own pro team, have arenas that host XCrawl events, or preferably several of the former and at least one of the latter. NYC has an official XCrawl team for each one of the Five Boroughs, and a dozen more that just happen to be from/based in the area. They compete for this, and they can generally provide you with lots of lovely little amenities, like tax breaks and speaking engagements and God knows what. (This umbrella-group can include the Mayor, city councilpeople, aldermen, major organized crime figures, philanthropists, really rich people who just love the city, and any other local figures you can imagine. They can offer some pretty nice inducements.)

I found this one of the least realistic parts of XCrawl: Not enough corporate involvement. Crawls wouldn’t be named after cities anymore then sports arenas are. Look at the names: The Air Canada Center, The Rodgers Center (nee Skydome), I think there is one named after Bell now….

You’d have the Labatte Blue crawl, the Ford crawl, the Air Canada skycrawl (everything takes place on a giant cargo jet), the FedEx Crawl (Revolves around safely moving a package from point A to B…..by 8am the next morning with no damage), and so on.

The Temples like to have their God represented. Maybe prominently. But only by winners. They tend to encourage their young, attractive, martially-inclined clerics to join XCrawl teams and represent. They really like it if they can get XCrawlers to be seen in their temples, wear their holy symbols, and talk to kids about how they must venerate the gods to lead a virtuous life.

Broadcasters, whether major networks or Pay-Per-View, want to have a really badass Crawl, so that lots of people will watch it and they can charge enormous fees from advertisers. There is frequently some consternation on their part when the people who would like to buy advertising time become upset that the teams are sponsored by (and wearing the logos of) their competitors.

Direct Sponsors pay you to drink their sports drink during short rests, or wear their shoes, or put their logo on your armor, or whatever. DJs and Broadcasters consider them a pain in the ass, but haven’t so far been able to do much about it, since they don’t have the right to control the Adventurers that much. They lobby, though.

Yeah, have a look at TV: How much do you think Coke pays American Idol to have the judges drinking coke every episode? I respected Mythbusters for a long time in that they covered the labels on every product they used but even they are now shelling for some car company. Think about the opportunities in XCrawl. All the furniture in the break rooms is from either Ikea or Idomo.Next Post: Factions!

To date this is the last post he has written which means that I have to start writing my own posts again. I googled around and bumped into this review which is a nice summery of the good bits, however I find it is not critical enough of the poorer bits (The number of pages spent on background to the world & the lack of examples of the crawl). Oh, I may do a review myself as I saw the total line of XCrawl books on Pazio for huge discounts and bought the whole line. However I will not be getting it till Feb due to having to ship it to a friends due to the fact I’m moving & don’t want it going to the wrong place. Anyway, I’d like to here other peoples opinions & ideas, either here or in the original thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canageek

I’ve been doing a blog series on televised dungeon crawling: It’s not XCrawl, but its in the same genre. I’m going to link to your posts at http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=9795841 but was wondering if I could mirror them? RPG.NET has been known to lose threads from time to time and if I run a game I’d definitely be referencing your posts when explaining the world to people. I’m NOT a high traffic blog, its just a personal indulgence of mine, but I’d be willing to link to any blog or website you have in exchange for the privilege

I’d like credit and a link back to the thread in any post mirroring it, obviously, but as far as I’m concerned you can go to town.
I’d also like a link to your blog, in case there’s any interesting discussion. Get some interest, and I might even go back to working on the idea in-thread.

Ok, time for the 3rd post in my series of posts where I get The Wyzard to do all the work and just add commentary. This is the start of his final post in the original thread, however due to the length of it with my comments (Over 6 pages) I have split it into several parts. If you think this is too long (or that I should have left it as one post) let me know.

Okay, I’m going to vastly expand on my ideas in the above post, because it doesn’t really seem to follow from anything, and I need to fix that. XCrawl is a funny beast. It’s both a cultural phenomenon and also a massively useful political tool, and also a source of people who are extremely dangerous on a personal level. There are guys in XCrawl who can through personal force of arms take down dozens of normal soldiers. A party of them could spearhead a small military coup.

So, a lot of people are interested in it, and a lot of people want to have influence over it. For that reason, I’m going to go into a typology of the players in the XCrawl world, which hopefully will be inspirational to you.

XCrawl: The Players

1. Adventuring Teams: Also known as parties, or athletes. These are the PCs. Each team has a name, must be registered, may have an agent or a publicist, etc. They may have endorsement deals or sponsors, they may parley their success into non-XCrawl jobs such as shilling cream cheese and canned soup, or more…exciting work. Low-level XCrawlers will probably have to have real jobs, and for them XCrawl is mostly just a ridiculously dangerous hobby. High-level teams May well make enough money from their winnings and endorsements that they can just train or do whatever in the off-season. XCrawl adventuring teams can often end up with personal animosity (rather than merely professional opposition) toward the DJs.

I’d also be interested in seeing adventurers getting involved with politics like Ken Dryden that ran for the liberal party leadership. Xcrawlers are also probably like movie starts are look at all the stuff they get mixed up in. Tom Cruise? Arnold Schwarzenegger aka The Govonator? That NRA guy? Charlton Heston? Chuck Norris using Chuck Norris Facts to help a friend’s political campaign?

2. The DJs: These are the opposite sides of the coin from the Adventurers. To become a DJ requires a lot of things. You have to have both a carefully crafted public persona to display to the fans and media types. You have to be quick-witted and able to improvise on the fly. You have to have an artistic directorial sense, to make sure your crawls are something people want to see. You have to be a broadly capable administrator, able to handle everything from monsters going rogue and eating the audience, to making sure monsters don’t go rogue, to dealing with unions and teamsters and logistics and the financial end of running a crawl.

DJs have to be able to design a satisfyingly watchable and appropriately dangerous dungeon that will pass Referee inspection, get prize support and sponsorships, get a “slot” for it to fit into, cut deals with broadcasters and/or pay-per-view, stock the dungeon with monsters and traps (which is infinitely more complex than it sounds, with ritualists, wranglers, and others required), and…the list just keeps on going. Oh yeah, and you have to build a personal rapport with a fanbase, so that the networks and sponsors consider you to be a draw.

And then the Adventurers come in and wreck your shit, and you have to pay them for the privilege of killing off your expensive monsters and blowing your traps to smithereens (There was a way to disarm that! All they had to do was go up and solve the little puzzle and it would have stopped shooting at them! Now you have to buy another one, and it was expensive!) Fortunately, you are allowed to (try to) kill them. To some extent, it’s even good for your rep.

Man, I would have rather had more pages of stuff like this then all that background on the world before the historical collapse of everything. Again DJs are one of the best ideas in XCrawl and they are rather original and distinctive, so I didn’t feel comfortable stealing them for my setting. Make sure to play these guys up. Each one should have a distinctive style and personality. I don’t mean dramatic themes all undead, all the time for DJ Necropolis (though that is an option) but things like one DJ doing historical themes (The tower of London, The pyramids, the French Resistance during WWII), another likeing placing his crawls on converted ships. You can vary things up stylistically: One DJ might like a crude feel for his crawls, all cinderblock, sheet metal and plywood. Like a paintball arena but more solidly built. Another would make his dungeons with as little modern technology as possible so that it exactly resembles something out of D&D. This is one of the aspects I’d like about XCrawl is you can have each dungeon totally different without any justification needed. No I don’t like that just because I can steal maps & dungeons from lots of different games…though it is an upside. I should write up my Televised Dungeon Crawling setting for SF so I can have space stations, underwater complexes, Warhammer 40K style hulks on which the XCrawlers are dropped on one part and must simply survive and get to the ship waiting to pick them up. The sky is the limit: Push it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canageek

I’ve been doing a blog series on televised dungeon crawling: It’s not XCrawl, but its in the same genre. I’m going to link to your posts at http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=9795841 but was wondering if I could mirror them? RPG.NET has been known to lose threads from time to time and if I run a game I’d definitely be referencing your posts when explaining the world to people. I’m NOT a high traffic blog, its just a personal indulgence of mine, but I’d be willing to link to any blog or website you have in exchange for the privilege

I’d like credit and a link back to the thread in any post mirroring it, obviously, but as far as I’m concerned you can go to town.
I’d also like a link to your blog, in case there’s any interesting discussion. Get some interest, and I might even go back to working on the idea in-thread.

————————————————————–

Sorry it took so long to get this up, I was bogged down in exams. The next part shouldn’t take QUITE so long.